Monster Under the Bed
by Kuro49
Summary: Pre-DGM Plot. Rabi, Kanda, Rinali Interactions. There were monsters under the bed, each telling another tale of horror. Each night they listened but tonight they finally decided to tell.


Set before Allen's arrival, approximately some time after Rabi came to the Order. (Kanda and Rabi about 16 and Rinali about 15, just in case you are curious, although they are unconsciously portrayed as younger in here. XP) I don't own anything except a love for catching a glimpse of darker secrets between these sweet exorcists.

Posted in celebration of the 10th month this year, and as a little early Halloween fic. :)

XXX

**Monster Under the Bed.**

XXX

He rolled over to the side.  
The sheets were cold but his skin was warm, he stifled another yawn.

There was a monster under the bed.

With wiry human hands it was sharpening a weapon, metal grazing against stone like the clash of thin blades. It whistled a tune until it tried to test out the quality of its work, the tip cut into its skin, drawing red to the surface. It winced and its large round eyes blinked, not in pain but in anticipation. It cracked open its sewn mouth, snapping the old and worn strings in bits, its voice was scratchy as it knocked over the stack of human skulls by accident.

'Want to feel how much it _hurts_?' The word seemed to echo in the room.

She opened her eyes.  
Something wet was on her cheek and the ceiling loomed ahead like a big giant mouth painted in poison black.

There was a monster under the bed.

With claws as long as five inches, each slick with blood, they played a noiseless piano piece on the headboard of the bed. One note, the tip of it scratched a horrid line across the wood. She heard the song and the saliva that drooled from its wide grin, the liquid was slick, as much as blood and it was black, poisonously acidic as it burned crisp holes into the sheets. She took a sharp intake of breath, sensing its shadow cast on her body.

'Want to know a little _secret_?' The word seemed to be pounding at the unlocked door.

He sat up in the dark.  
The chain of the lamp clinked as his elbow came into contact, accidentally of course.

There was a monster under the bed.

With imaginary tentacles of rainbow colors, each slithered a slippery path on the floorboards as they toyed with the hemming of his bed sheets. It blew a bubble from its mouth and he could smell the alluring taunt of the candy on its long razor tongue. The smell of books lingered on it, from the long while it has resided beneath his bed; its tentacles were long stained with ink.

'Want to die a memorable _death_?' The word seemed to be screaming against the walls to be let out.

000

_No, I don't want to._  
But there was never a choice in this.

Was there?

000

The door was burst open.

Flung from the hinges and the wood absorbed all the abuse without another sound.

"I—I…" She tried to gather her words in to a sensible order. "I… thought…" She stopped to gulp in a breath of air. "I thought you…" She tried to calm her racing heart but it was beating to a storm of emotions that tore her apart.

"I thought you died."

There was silence that resounded with her words, it echoed like a haunting before dying on the dust that layered the corners.

"…Thanks."

A dry cold remark as he raised an eyebrow at the girl.

"I am not kidding!" She walked in, bare feet brushing at the floors; she tugged her shirt closer to her body. "I thought you really died, Kanda!" Her voice was shivering like she was cold, but she wasn't cold, she was just caught off guard.

"And like I said, thanks, Rinali." He swung his legs over the edges, weaving a hand through his head of black strands, pulling at the tangles that had formed. "I just never thought you were the type to wish deaths for others." His lips tugged into a small smirk, blue eyes blinking with an amused light in the dark.

And her lips slowly pulled into a thin smile, although a bit reluctant but his dry humor always got to her and she walked deeper into his room, like a prey navigating in the dark. Her hands were outstretched to avoid bumping into the different objects in the room, her feet brushed at the ground and she could feel the small grains of sand that pricked at her skin.

"It was so…" She paused to find a word suitable to fit what she saw.

"Real?" He offered with a blink of his eyes and then she slowly soaked in his offer. "No… it was brutal but it was a little too brutal for it to be realistic."

"So how did I die?"

"You were…" Her words trailed off as she searched through her head, pass the tangled spider webs that taunted her thoughts and the creature that always devoured her mindless dreams. Now she had to face that creature and tear the nightmare from between its teeth.

"You were—" _killed by Mugen._ But she never got to finish her sentence.

And then the door was pushed open.

"Yuu!"

She turned around as if her predator had suddenly sunk their pointed teeth into her neck, ripping her flesh apart to drip lukewarm red. And then Kanda cranked his head to the side, a bit distracted as he caught the glimpse of red before the room was plunged into darkness again with the sound of the door clicking shut.

"Rabi…" She breathed out his name as if it was air.

"Opps, am I interrupting _something_?" He wiggled his eyebrows in the dark, although the others couldn't make out his face but they could both hear it in his voice, the small amused quirk at the end that shattered his reputation of being a 'serious' Bookman apprentice.

"No, Rabi." She gave him a swat to the arm and he let out a small yelp of barely felt pain, he was just filling up the silence as to prevent those awkward moments that would fall over the three when fear grabs them by the ankle and dragged them further into their despair.

"Ne, Yuu?" He tilted his head to the side to look at the dark shape still sitting on the bed. "I am jealous, you are getting some action before me…" He gave a pout in the dark, uncaring whether anyone really got to see it or not.

Kanda's will to break something was now just a matter of time.

"Just joking!!" Rabi held up his hands in defense, strangely he had a feeling that Yuu's temper tonight was cutting short and if he didn't sooth that grumpy teen he was sure going to be next thing getting cut, and really he was not in the mood of turning into sashimi.

Rinali padded over to the bed and turned the lamp on.

It flickered to life, emitting a dry yellow glow, like a broken eggshell with its yolk slowly seeping out. She let out a small breath as her eyes rested on the two other in the room. By then Rabi was already sitting on the bed, long legs crossed on the white sheets as Kanda's scowl just continued to deepen.

It has been a while since she saw them side by side, often if Kanda was on a mission fighting through the herds of Akuma then Rabi was in the library reading up on some ancient history no one ever cared for and if Rabi was on a mission calling up the elements to assist him then Kanda would be wormed up in his room staring at the wilting flower that continued to grow gray. And her? She would always be busy with one thing or another, trying to keep her mind off the things she didn't want to know.

And now she had the time to study them, their growing features as her eyes ran over the contoured outline of the two teens on the bed sharing an one-sided conversation.

000

She had been with him for so long.

She remembered how their hair used to be so short but she never remembered why he wore his in a ponytail and hers in pigtails, it was just a mutual agreement they decided on when he drew his sword and she activated her dark boots. He saw her for the weak and pathetic crybaby that she was and she saw him for the vulnerable homesick child that he was. She didn't bother hacking away at the mask he wore because she knew he was feeling what she had always felt.

Perhaps just a little bit more cursed if you tilt your head to the side.

And then brown rested on red.

000

Rabi had matured, that's for sure.

She still remembered the teen that has arrived; he was charming with those barely noticeable faint scars that defined his days in the field. But he was so fake, that grin especially. At first sight she cringed, the sunshine and bright stars that he carried in his pockets made her sick because he seemed normal of all things. But slowly she found the little slips and flaws that left his raw self exposed, even if it was only for a few seconds on random months of the year. But it was enough to convince her that he was just like them.

Sleep deprived, soul strung out, and definitely human.

And then she tore her eyes from their mumbling figures.

000

Rinali wandered familiarly in the room, taking notice of the rarely used chair she pulled it over to the bed. The wooden legs scratched against the wooden boards but it was muffled by the thin dirt and dust that decorated the ground.

"So why _is_ Rinali in your room?" Rabi gave a turn of his head and spoke up, with the absence of his headband, the loose red hair was even messier than in the day.

"She thought I died." Kanda plainly stated with a blunt tone. Her cheeks heated up in embarrassment, hearing it out loud from someone else just made her sound all the more ridiculous.

"I didn't know you were that kind of people, Rinali…" Rabi started with a slightly amused gaze towards the girl on the chair, she had pulled her knees up to her chest and leaned back comfortably against Kanda's exorcist jacket that he has draped over the chair out of habit and of course convenience.

"How about you?" She asked with a small pout, trying to steer the conversation another way where she wasn't the center of attention. "Why are _you_ in Kanda's room?"

"Can't I just want to spend some quality time with my best friend?" He slung an arm around Kanda's shoulders, only to receive a heated glare from those cold blue eyes. And then he offered with a sly grin. "I can't sleep."

"I told you not to eat those sugar packs." Kanda muttered as he rolled his eyes, leaning back against the headboard, Rinali flinched just slightly but neither of the others saw.

"No! It isn't that…" Rabi looked down as he gave a small protest, Rinali looked over at him and Kanda raised a brow. But by then Rabi had resorted to picking out the dirt from underneath his fingernails, his words left trailing in the dim yellow glow that lay slick around the three of them.

"Scared of the dark?" Kanda offered, a smirk slowly tearing its way through his lips.

"No!"

"You miss Bookman, don't you?" Rinali's voice was soft but it cut open Rabi like a clean knife, like a child prodding into a situation surrounded by adults and without a doubt she was right as the blunt tone to her voice made it seem so obvious.

Rabi was left with no words on his tongue but he was a Bookman apprentice, he had to live up to his name. So it wasn't hard before he gruffly retorted. "I don't miss that panda!"

The two gave him a stare that told him to confess before they send the boogeyman after him, whether any of them really believed in the monster that plagued childish sleep or not. Because it was all just figurative speech as they had much more effective methods of making people spill their secrets, like Mugen, perhaps?

The other two watched him open his mouth, although it was dim but they saw the way he fidgeted with the corners of Kanda's sheets, they saw the way he gave a childish pout of his lips before finally admitting through the words that he had failed to see as friends just this time around.

"I am just not… used to sleeping alone in my room."

Rinali couldn't help but let the smile flush out on her lips.

"Sissy."

"Kanda! That was sweet of him, don't discourage him!" Rinali gave a scowl but it didn't stay long as the smile just kept pulling her lips. "We don't need anymore antisocial humbugs like you around here."

And then Rabi couldn't help but let out a small laugh despite the embarrassment from before. "Just imagine what it would be like with 5 Kandas…" He had to stifle a snicker with a hand to his mouth.

Kanda gave the two a glare, a sharp icy look but he knew it was barely effective as Rinali's smile was too wide to allow her eyes to open properly while Rabi was too busy trying to silence those laughter from bubbling over.

It was times like these when he felt that war was creeping up behind them, lurking just around the corners for their guards to be let down. They were living in a fight, right in the middle of all the debris, part of it all, sword and soul. They were the soldiers on the field battling a bloody path to get out of it. And then he heard it.

The silence that had finally settled over.

It was waiting outside of the circle for just the right moment before joining in on the fun.

And then as hard as it was for him to be the one to break it, he opened his mouth. He had to before they were all consumed by the yellow light and the silence that had snaked an arm around their bodies.

"You two want to stay in my room…"

He received two unison nods, a mob of red and long black hair that could compare with his own.

The blade was swept across the stone surface, the edge grazed across, gleaming in the reflected light of the yellow lamp. And then they could hear a light whistled tune that in any other circumstances would have been comforting.

But he had to bluntly refuse. "You guys can't."

It wasn't curiosity that made him ask because he was sure all three of them heard the way that calm whistling made their skin crawl. It was just a sense of responsibility. "Why?"

"Because I have a monster under my bed."

None of them seem taken back, rather they sunk deeper into their seats.

Like three children sulking in the dark.

"But we can't leave either."

Rabi pointed out as he pulled the sheets over his bare feet. Rinali leaned forward with lidded eyes as she buried her feet deeper into the folds of the bed. They looked at each other, each willing the other for help through a simple gaze of brown, blue and green.

And then Kanda reluctantly allowed the word to leave his mouth.

"Why?" It was like a common trade.

Their claws scrapped noisily against the wooden surface. And then they heard a distorted version of their names. Rabi could smell the scent of candy swirling in a dance with the sharp razor tongue and Rinali flinched as she heard that silent piano piece distinctly written for her.

"Because we left our demons at your door, Yuu."

XXX Kuro

Childish nightmares, something creepy to show off the darker side of young exorcists. Oh this was so much fun, why? Cuz it was sweetly twisted, like treaks wrapped in candy. I am sure all of us had bad dreams and insecurities, so why shouldn't they get it? :D Thus this story was born, curious enough to review?


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